If we still define periods of art history by "isms" then Post Slumdog Millionairism seems a perfect way to describe the recycling of cultural clichés in current times- particularly everything that comes under the umbrella term - South Asian. Recycling would seem like the natural thing to do considering 'Go Green' is the mantra of the day. Alright, maybe that wasn't such a smart dig, but it sums up the focus of this piece rather well! I apologize if at first this may seem like a review for the multiple Oscar-winner Slumdog Millionaire but I assure you its just a great segue to talk about some of the truisms that surround art from countries other than America and Europe.
So let me say this first - the need for and the posited realization of so called Non-Western cultures to be mainstream rather than niche is a complete fiction. Such a notion does not exist. As long as there is West and East, no matter how globalized the world can get, the ideas and biases that the terms Western and Non-Western express is here to stay. That's why my conversation with a film critic who visited the booth I was manning at the Armory Show this March, could have taken place in the 1990's (multiculturalism was hot then!) or maybe even the 19th century if you stretched your imagination a little bit (Orientalism). He actually wrote a review (a positive one) for Slumdog Millionaire. Apparently he loved it because it showed the West a world (Mumbai to be precise) that he and Americans like him had never known about. I wondered what he meant. What exactly didn't he know about this other world? I mean is it that the movie shifted his focus to the exoticism of the slums of Mumbai from say, the exoticism (and frustrations perhaps) of call centers that answer his calls with fake Christian names and accents, or the glorious Taj Mahal, or perhaps the fantasy that every South Asian woman can bend like a pretzel because the Kama Sutra says so? Yes I did wonder. And I still am because to me the movie recycled old stereotypes and led to a wave of such representations across every generic programming on American television. Be it "Anoop-dawg" (real name Anoop Desai), born to South Asian immigrant parents, crooning to be the next American Idol or random South Asian nerdy, accented characters on shows like Big Bang Theory and Rules of Engagement, where they never existed before. You even have the all girl band Pussycat Dolls with their Bindi's, kohl and toned mid-drifts singing the Oscar winning song from the movie Oh Boy! (actually Jai Ho).
A culture that’s not Western is always looked at as being exotic
Maybe I'm overanalyzing it, but is it strange that even as I write this I just watched a 6 year old American Desi boy being interviewed on Good Morning America for having an IQ of 164. Another stereotype! I bring this up because the Art world is no different when it comes to categorizing, packaging and talking about art with ever so properly defined stereotypes and formulas (mostly recycled), to create a context around 'Non Western' art. As much as Globalization is touted as having leveled the platforms through which art from America, Europe and the rest of the world is presented and contextualized, it is a bit of an exaggeration.
Globalization has made everything and everybody more accessible but it hasn't done much to change pre-conditioned ideas about each other. For instance, you could sit in one part of the world and curate a show in another, with artists who come from 3 different time zones thanks to I-phones, Blackberries and/or laptops. However Globalization doesn’t mean the contexts to understand and develop a critical dialog have changed. Take for example Anish Kapoor. He's called the greatest British artist, although he left for Britain from India only at the age of 17? And why does he seem so uncomfortable when his works are talked about with reference to his ethnicity or for that matter put in an Indian Contemporary sale as opposed to Post War and Contemporary? It’s because being Indian means too many stereotypes that I talked of earlier on.
And so you can't really blame the guy! I wouldn't want my work to be called exotic just because I come from a certain ethnicity, whether or not it forms a source of influence. Its not as if one shouldn't be influenced by one's culture. But when it’s a culture that’s not Western, it’s always looked at as being exotic. Even if the term exotic is not used, its implied and perpetuated especially where the secondary market plays a dominant role in that market - case in point, the Indian Contemporary Art Market.
Auction Houses have to do this of course. They are selling the idea of a certain value someone may want to add to their collection, and they have to market it via various means. With emerging markets it’s easy to do this based on cultural, ethnic parameters. They are selling a part of that culture.
That works from the business perspective of an Auction House but when it spills over to the way in which critical dialog develops then its like wearing blinders and refusing to take them off. I mean, think about those South Asian artists born in the US, or Europe, or who are of mixed race. While the rest of the world likes to call them the Diaspora (and present them in any number of curated shows with the same angle), a majority of them feel as American or British as anyone born in those respective countries.
That they have a mixed, and thereby perhaps rich, cultural heritage to draw inspiration from, shouldn't make it the only basis from which to have a dialog with their art. And neither should that be the case of artists from India or any other country that fits nicely under the blanket term South Asia. Perhaps it will change a hundred years down the line, but if history is any indicator then I guess someone could just recycle these very words in the future to present the same arguments, because cultural hierarchies are the only thing constant in this world. Regardless, I hope to use this column to provide relevant angles from which to create more intellectually stimulating conversations about this work. Let’s think out of the box and really mean it this time!
